SetWindowDisplayAffinity on windows 11

sickl8 46

Hiding windows from screen capture in windows 10 is a breeze
SetWindowDisplayAffinity() with WDA_EXCLUDEFROMCAPTURE and WDA_MONITOR doesn't work on firefox and chrome, but does work on notepad for example (as far as I tested)
What changed in windows 11 that might have caused this "bug?"? Was this intended from the microsoft devs? Would like a solution to port my windows 10 app to win11.
Thanks.

here's a program to test with, it's a command line program. github repo

Junjie Zhu - MSFT 14,751 Reputation points Microsoft Vendor

2022-01-19T08:04:44.52+00:00

This may be a bug in Win11, you can try to check for updates in Win11(Settings -> update&security ->check for updates), upgrade to the latest version.
Viorel 112.1K Reputation points

2022-01-19T20:02:23.243+00:00

Did you check the result (and GetLastError) of SetWindowDisplayAffinity (excepting the case when it is called incorrectly)? And is it actually called in problematic cases?

Also note that “Calling functions that require DLLs other than Kernel32.dll may result in problems that are difficult to diagnose” (from the documentation of DllMain).
sickl8 46 Reputation points

2022-01-20T01:00:28.933+00:00

Did have an update, download and installed the update, nothing has changed
Did you take a look at the code?
Junjie Zhu - MSFT 14,751 Reputation points Microsoft Vendor

2022-01-20T01:39:25.377+00:00

Yes, I used the code you shared yesterday, it works locally, but can't hide the specified window, and I didn't get any error messages, I'm going to write SetWindowDisplayAffinity Sample to test it.
sickl8 46 Reputation points

2022-01-20T04:28:27.333+00:00

Okay I did just that
My modified code enumerates the threads, and then their windows from within the remote thread inside the target process
Here's the debug file for windows 10:

https://i.imgur.com/MxIbPlu.png

and here's the windows 11 one:

https://i.imgur.com/6SDQWZH.png

as you can see, the only difference is for the main window that fails with error 8, which is ERROR_NOT_ENOUGH_MEMORY, and no the main window does not have the WS_EX_LAYERED extended style

proof:
https://imgur.com/EYtBD9l.png
https://imgur.com/NXSqM6a.png

both windows of chrome in win10 and win11 have the same bit mask for window styles and the extended ones

why would SetWindowDisplayAffinity() fail with error 8, and exclussively for that window?
sickl8 46 Reputation points

2022-01-20T11:20:25.38+00:00

Check my reply to the comment below yours, some useful information to save you the hassle
RaviKiran 21 Reputation points

2022-01-20T23:43:17.59+00:00

Hello Team MS, We are also facing the same issues and our development activities are stalled for Win 11. Please let us know, when can we expect this fix?
Junjie Zhu - MSFT 14,751 Reputation points Microsoft Vendor

2022-01-21T07:20:50.24+00:00

Did you completely use the code you shared without making any changes?
sickl8 46 Reputation points

2022-01-21T15:40:29.917+00:00

The code I provided called FindWindowEx() in a loop, which I reckon got every window handle there is in the system, which confused me, so I switched from that approach to calling EnumerateThreads(), looping on each thread and calling EnumThreadWindows(), with the callback function being just a call to SetWindowDisplayAffinity(), which then resulted in a shorter debug file that I provided as screenshots in the form of:
wda: the return value of SetWindowDisplayAffinity(), lasterror: the return value of GetLastError(), windowHandle: current window handle, windowCaption: string passed to GetWindowTextA()
And yes, both codes do the exact same job on win10 and win11
RaviKiran 21 Reputation points

2022-01-30T02:46:45.137+00:00

Did you guys figure out the problem? I have tested thoroughly on Windows 10 and Windows 11. It is working miraculously great on Windows 10 and failing on most of the applications on Windows 11 (Example: notepad.exe, mspaint.exe mstsc.exe - are hiding; whereas apps like msedge.exe chrome.exe - are not". I am 100% sure its a bug in Win 11. Can you please get this reviewed and let us know next steps?
Viorel 112.1K Reputation points

2022-01-30T08:43:56.787+00:00

Maybe you are not using it in designed manner too?
RaviKiran 21 Reputation points

2022-01-30T19:33:29.597+00:00

When it is working as expected in windows 10 and below (applies to all gui applications), why not on win 11?
RaviKiran 21 Reputation points

2022-01-30T19:44:32.323+00:00

Did you get to find the issue?
sickl8 46 Reputation points

2022-02-16T02:50:55.04+00:00

@Junjie Zhu - MSFT
any luck finding where the error occured?
Junjie Zhu - MSFT 14,751 Reputation points Microsoft Vendor

2022-02-16T03:00:03.507+00:00

I have reported your problem to the engineers of Microsoft Win11, but I have not received a reply so far.
Yuan Ma 6 Reputation points

2022-02-25T09:15:06.883+00:00

I also see the same issue on Windows 11, the main window does not have WS_EX_LAYERED extended style, but SetWindowDisplayAffinity return false with error code ERROR_NOT_ENOUGH_MEMORY
8 (0x8)
Junjie Zhu - MSFT 14,751 Reputation points Microsoft Vendor

2022-03-07T07:24:23.92+00:00

May I know which window you are operating on？
Junjie Zhu - MSFT 14,751 Reputation points Microsoft Vendor

2022-03-07T07:24:35.213+00:00

May I know which window you are operating on？
Junjie Zhu - MSFT 14,751 Reputation points Microsoft Vendor

2022-03-07T07:27:25.313+00:00

I cannot reproduce the error 8, I used the Invisiwind sample you provided, which also failed to reproduce your problem. Could you please provide your complete test code, which does not contain any personal privacy
RaviKiran 21 Reputation points

2022-03-07T19:41:53.803+00:00

I have tested in all windows 10 systems (it was working great - a user can able to hide and unhide, prevent screenshot etc -- on almost all applications, means - there is no ERROR_NOT_ENOUGH_MEMORY 8 error), then I tried with Windows 11 (3 different versions) - some applications are compatible (working as expected) and some are not (resulting in ERROR_NOT_ENOUGH_MEMORY 8) , especially for apps like Chrome.exe MSedge.exe, firefox.exe, teams.exe etc.
Junjie Zhu - MSFT 14,751 Reputation points Microsoft Vendor

2022-03-08T01:31:33.747+00:00

I haven't been able to reproduce error8 on my computer yet, but it doesn't work for Chrome either, and on Windows 11 SetWindowDisplayAffinity seems to work only for simple Win32 applications like Notepad and console. So can you provide your test code? Does not contain any personal privacy.
sickl8 46 Reputation points

2022-03-11T03:28:21.5+00:00
here is a modified version of invisiwind in the post

https://github.com/sickl8/Invisiwind/

how to replicate the error:

clone the repo

build the solution in both x64 and x86

launch Google Chrome

launch powershell or windows terminal and navigate to (the root folder being where the solution is) Build/bin/"either debug or release"

.\Invisiwind.exe

hide chrome.exe

and voila, on windows 10, it'll hide successfully, you can verify with OBS or a screenshot for example, but on windows 11, you'll see a popup msgbox with the window handle, error code, and error string
RaviKiran 21 Reputation points

2022-03-11T16:17:32.107+00:00

Thanks @sickl8 @Junjie Zhu - MSFT , as Sickl has provided you the sample code. Here is some additional context that might help you in debugging the issue. the error code on Windows 11 is 0x8 (ERROR_NOT_ENOUGH_MEMORY). From this msdn post, this corresponds to when a window has the WS_EX_LAYERED window style.

https://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/7ce400f0-ebda-4b95-869c-85b5b93f972d/win32-setwindowdisplayaffinity?forum=windowsgeneraldevelopmentissues
wenqiao qiu 6 Reputation points

2022-03-17T03:15:27.743+00:00

I encount the same problem. The point is it works ok on windows 10.
SoftGun 6 Reputation points

2022-03-21T20:00:33.063+00:00

@Junjie Zhu - MSFT - Any update on this please? Did you managed to get response from MS Team? Windows 11 for SetWindowDisplayAffinity() is currently very unstable
Junjie Zhu - MSFT 14,751 Reputation points Microsoft Vendor

2022-03-22T01:52:41.52+00:00

The result of my discussion with our team engineers is that there is no problem with using SetWindowDisplayAffinity in normal Win32 applications, but there is a problem with using SetWindowDisplayAffinity in other non-Win32 applications in Win11, which needs to wait for engineer's further reply.
SoftGun 6 Reputation points

2022-03-22T02:11:23.73+00:00

Hello @Junjie Zhu - MSFT , Your statement is partially correct. I have tested against non-Win32 applications like MS Word, MS Excel - and it is perfectly working fine with them on Windows 11. But when I tried with Teams its not.

In other words, some of the non-Win32 apps are being hidden. Hope this analysis would help
Junjie Zhu - MSFT 14,751 Reputation points Microsoft Vendor

2022-03-22T02:58:49.153+00:00

Yes! @SoftGun , for Win32 programs are absolutely successful, other programs are not sure, Have you seen this https://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/7ce400f0-ebda-4b95-869c-85b5b93f972d/win32-setwindowdisplayaffinity?forum=windowsgeneraldevelopmentissues
SoftGun 6 Reputation points

2022-03-22T12:43:42.583+00:00

Thank you for sharing that @Junjie Zhu - MSFT . I read that article and thank you for sharing that, per my reading that problem was with Windows 10 X64 in 2019 and it got fixed later I guess because now all Win 10's are working for 32 and non win32 apps. I was only wondering why not in Win 11?
MSFTAdmirer 1 Reputation point

2022-03-22T21:30:51.797+00:00

@Junjie Zhu - MSFT Indeed this seems to be a benign bug, Is this fix in works with MSFT engineers? Can this be escalated please?
RaviKiran 21 Reputation points

2022-05-26T13:33:54.88+00:00

Its been couple of months since this issue has been reported - may I kindly know the status?
Anton Kukoba 6 Reputation points

2022-06-17T12:02:16+00:00

It is working miraculously great on Windows 10 because they've introduced the bug in Windows 11 within the code of ChangeWindowTreeProtection() in win32kfull.sys. Thus Windows 10 works as a charm. They even have the compatibility fix called LegacyDisplayAffinity in order to make SetWindowDisplayAffinity() work as if it's Windows 10. But it's unknown how to enable that fix for the specific application. Yet they have it in the Compatibility Administrator shown for various Citrix apps.
SoftGun 6 Reputation points

2022-06-17T15:44:24.49+00:00

@Junjie Zhu - MSFT Can you please take a look at it and help? @Antonykukoba-6350 How did you find out the bug is introduced in win32kfull.sys for ChangeWindowTreeProtection() - do you have debug data?

my project has a setup file and also have certain DLLS and executable - my question is, for what I should apply compatibility fix (LegacyDisplayAffinity()) - setup file, of all files. Your kind support is highly appreciated.
Junjie Zhu - MSFT 14,751 Reputation points Microsoft Vendor

2022-06-20T01:52:50.213+00:00

Regarding this issue, it seems to be a brand new question. You can ask the question in MS Q&A, and there will be professional engineers to answer your questions. In this post, we should still pay attention to the issue of SetWindowDisplayAffinity on windows 11. I've provided the current solution to this problem below.
choi kookjun 1 Reputation point

2022-06-28T08:23:37.907+00:00

SetWindowDisplayAffinity succeeds when creating a window, but ERROR_NOT_ENOUGH_MEMORY error occurs after that
Junjie Zhu - MSFT 14,751 Reputation points Microsoft Vendor

2022-06-28T08:58:58.347+00:00

Excuse me, the solutions in the answer below can't solve the problem of you using SetWindowDisplayAffinity in win11?

3 answers

Junjie Zhu - MSFT 14,751 Reputation points Microsoft Vendor

2022-06-16T08:25:41.907+00:00

HI, All
Welcome to Microsoft Q&A!

Here are the steps for the workaround. First the Windows ADK needs to be installed: Download and install the Windows ADK | Microsoft Learn
1.Start Compatibility Administrator
2.Select File | New menu item to create a new custom compatibility database file.
3.Select Database | Create New | Application Fix menu item, which will display the “Create new Application Fix” wizard. Enter information about the program to be fixed, then click Next. The following screen shot demonstrates using HelloWorld.exe(Apps that don't work with SetWindowDisplayAffinity).

4.Select any desired compatibility modes, then click Next. No compatibility modes are needed in this scenario.

5.Check the PreventMouseInPointer compatibility fix, then click Next.

6.Select the criteria that the system will use to determine whether to apply the PreventMouseInPointer fix to the application, then click Finish. I selected the COMPANY_NAME, PRODUCT_NAME and UP_TO_BIN_FILE_VERSION options.

7.Compatibility Administrator will then display content similar to the following:

8.Repeat steps 3 through 6 for other executables to add to the custom compatibility database if needed. I repeated the steps to apply PreventMouseInPointer to HelloWorld.exe.

9.Select File | Save menu item. Provide a name for the custom compatibility database and path/name for the .sdb file.

10.You can then use Compatibility Administrator to install the .sdb file (File | Install menu item), or specify the fill path to the .sdb file as a command line argument to the sdbinst.exe command-line tool.
Example: sdbinst c:\pathToSdbFile\HelloWorld.sdb
Compatibility Administrator will then show the custom compatibility database under Installed Databases.

Thanks!

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RaviKiran 21 Reputation points

2022-06-16T13:58:09.007+00:00

@Junjie Zhu - MSFT , thank you for sharing the work around. However, I would like to get it reconfirmed that - is this a solution that fix " SetWindowDisplayAffinity on windows 11" issue? Thank you

Junjie Zhu - MSFT 14,751 Reputation points Microsoft Vendor

2022-06-20T01:43:48.233+00:00

Yes this is the solution for this issue.
You need to do these steps for the application.exe you are having issue with.

Junjie Zhu - MSFT 14,751 Reputation points Microsoft Vendor

2022-06-22T01:42:58.833+00:00

@SoftGun
In fact I received an email reminder of your comment reply, I know this solution does not meet the needs of developers, As far as I know, in the future Microsoft 'may' solve this issue in win11.

SoftGun 6 Reputation points

2022-06-22T18:36:08.08+00:00

@Junjie Zhu - MSFT Thank you very much for your response. I have few follow up questions..

1) Is Microsoft aware of this issue? If so, was there any ticket generated?
2) Assuming they are aware, is there any progress or comments received?
3) As the solution is not yet derived, should we keep this discussion channel open until there is some resolution towards it?

Junjie Zhu - MSFT 14,751 Reputation points Microsoft Vendor

2022-06-23T03:14:27.8+00:00

Hi, Soft.
Microsoft is aware of this issue, but I doesn't know the end date to fix this issue, if this issue affects your development a lot, you can Send feedback to Microsoft with the Feedback Hub app.
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SoftGun 6 Reputation points

2022-10-19T14:45:22.08+00:00

Hello, I have tried all steps for chrome.exe on windows 11. Unfortunately, its not working for that application. I will test with edge, firefox and safari and revert back with results. @Junjie Zhu - MSFT
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George Taylor 0 Reputation points

2023-01-24T15:01:27.5233333+00:00

I distribute an app that employs SetWindowDisplayAffinity to hide sensitive information from screen capture. This works with the WDA_EXCLUDEFROMCAPTURE flasg on all Windows 10 platforms and earlier, and many WIndows 11 computers. However, there is a subset of Windows 11 computers for which both WDA_EXCLUDEFROMCAPTURE and WDA_MONITOR fails. Of course the proposed solution is no help for an app that is being widely distributed. Unfortunately, currently I am not collecting GetLastError values. I would appreciate a fix. Thanks
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